[extropy-chat] Superrationality

[Damien Sullivan]

On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 10:35:15AM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:

> > In more usual situations, as my tipping question was meant to
> > suggest, many of us may have superrational habits.
> 
> I would suggest that this is *not* a case of superrationality
> at all. This is a case of genuine altruism. (I join those who

> then to ignore the outside meme "PAL, JUST THIS TIME, DEFECT!",
> is not rational.

I'm tempted to say that altruistic behavior might be a result of
superrational programming by controlling genes or memes.  You're not
thinking through the superrationality, you're just acting it out.  But
this might getting into more definitional wrangling than I want.

There's also whether the Type I superrationals would outcompete the Type
II rationals, but I guess a rationalist philosopher could argue this
isn't truly one-shot, if the consequences of the other person doing well
have payoff for you or your descendants down the road.  One-shot for
you, not for your genes.  And if you emotionally care about how well
other Type Is do then that should be part of your payoff matrix.

That said, having defending the ultimate primacy of rationality, you may
still get outcompeted by a population of superrationals, leading to the
question of whether it is rational to be rational.  Depends on your
interests, I guess.

Is it rational for you to praise altruism?  *thinks*  Well yes, I guess
it is selfishly rational to praise altruism in others. :)  Ah, the
evolution of potential hypocrisy, where we all urge each other to act
for the greater good, so we can exploit each other... suggesting that
Objectivists are genuiniely altruistic, not rational.  I'm sure this is
well-travelled territory, though.

-xx- Damien X-)